Sit Still My Daughter - Fall 2020 Issue

Maybe now

The story of every woman’s struggle with being enough

by Sarah Schurman

Maybe if I lost twenty five pounds, I would be worth loving. Maybe if I could erase some of these wrinkles, someone would notice me. Maybe if I follow all the rules, I would be admired. Have you ever struggled with any of these “maybe now” scenarios? If you have, you are not alone. Countless women around the world are asking themselves the same thing every day, but they are not the first.

Feminists have long pursued the goal of giving women equal rights to men. Their motto is, “Anything a man can do a woman can match”. While there are many who say they have been successful in achieving this goal, they have yet been able to alter what a woman is on the inside. For as long as women have been, the core of who she is has remained untouched.

Centuries have come and gone, cultures have evolved and social structures have shifted, but who a woman was created to be has endured. She was created in the image of God with the purpose of reflecting a part of Himself to the world, a world that is in desperate need of what she has to give. Sadly, many women are fooled into thinking that is not enough, that they must meet a list of things in order to be worth loving. She spends her life saying, “Maybe now I will be worth loving since I have done this or that.”

Leah is the perfect example of what happens when a woman spends her life seeking to be worthy of love. She was a woman who lived in the shadow of others. Our introduction to Leah is not flattering but is relatable to many of us: “And Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah was tender eyed; but Rachel was beautiful and well favored” Gen. 29:16-17

She was tendered eyed which could have meant that her eyes bulged or perhaps were deformed unlike her sister who was beautiful. Leah’s introduction was one of comparison and she was found wanting. Does this sound familiar? It should because this is what women face on a daily basis. We are bombarded regularly by numerous ads across multiple media platforms telling us what we are lacking and how we can fill our lack so that we will finally be worth loving. The world says that if we don’t have this body, this hairstyle or this type of make-up, then we are not

Every woman was born with a question that needs to be answered, “Am I lovely?” The answer to this question determines a woman’s outlook and response to life.